Adobe + Nitobi: What Happens Next

We’re pleased to announce that Adobe’s acquisition of Nitobi closed yesterday. We’re very excited for the team at Nitobi to join Adobe and continue their work simplifying cross-platform mobile development via the PhoneGap project. That includes both stewardship of the open source project as well as bringing PhoneGap Build to a much broader set of customers than use PhoneGap today.

As part of that process, Nitobi has contributed the PhoneGap code to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under the name Apache Callback, where it will remain free and open source. That project has now been approved for incubation at the ASF, on its way to becoming a full Apache project. Meanwhile, Adobe will continue to host the PhoneGap online community as well as the PhoneGap Build service, which is now in open beta. Further details below:

What does Nitobi do?
Nitobi is the creator and primary contributor to the open source PhoneGap framework, which allows developers to create device native mobile applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can find out more at the Nitobiand PhoneGap sites.

Why did Adobe acquire Nitobi?
Adobe is committed to enabling efficient, expressive design and development across devices. PhoneGap is a leading solution for cross-platform mobile development using web standards, and we’re excited to support PhoneGap’s growth by committing resources to the development of the open source project. We integrated support for PhoneGap in Dreamweaver CS5.5, and with this acquisition we will also be bringing PhoneGap’s capabilities to a much broader range of customers though a paid hosted service, PhoneGap Build, which is currently in open beta.

This investment also reinforces Adobe’s commitment to helping its customers be more expressive, regardless of underlying technology. Recent innovative product releases such as Adobe Edge and Adobe Muse, as well as contributions to the jQuery mobile UI framework and Webkit for layout and typography functionality, are all evidence of Adobe’s strong belief in moving the web forward.

What underlying technology did Adobe acquire?
While the PhoneGap framework continues to be open source, PhoneGap Build incorporates additional proprietary code allowing developers to build their apps from anywhere without installing mobile platform SDKs.

Why did Nitobi contribute the PhoneGap code to the ASF?
Nitobi contributed the PhoneGap code to the ASF to ensure open stewardship of the project over the long term. Adobe fully supports this contribution and will continue to host the PhoneGap community site with full participation from its contributors, as well as the PhoneGap Build service.